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Field Update: Meet Olga, a Mother Counselor in Guatemala

Olga is the mother of 5 children and an active MTI Mother Counselor in the community of Sehaquiba, an hour and a half from Cobán.

Through MTI’s training sessions, Olga said she now knows a lot about care for children, when to look for necessary help, danger signs during pregnancy, how to purify her water, and family planning techniques. She thanked MTI for the education since now she practices family planning and understands the benefits of spacing pregnancies.
Olga said she had four children one after another and that when she had her births so quickly it was very difficult to care for her children as they were all very small. She commented that because of this experience she wants to transmit birth spacing information to other mothers in her area so that they can care for their families and live better.

Olga (far left) with Mother Counselors in Sehaquiba.

Olga commented that prior to MTI’s work in the communities she did not know how to look for help when her children were sick, and that they suffered from both diarrhea and pneumonia. Now, her children no longer suffer from the same high incidence of illness and her family is healthy. Within her community, Olga said that respiratory illnesses have also been reduced since families no longer cook with smoke in the home.

Olga noted that by practicing the instructions they have received they will be able to have a developing community, healthy families, and professionals in the future in their community. She noted that the village is now more organized, since leaders receive training on their roles and on the basis of this are more active and concerned about the health of the families that belong to their communities.